Chapter 2 – Reinforcements

"Alright, we've arrived." - Caster said.

Olga quickly took command - "Mash, place the shield on the ground. I'm going to prepare a summoning circle, and the shield will be the catalyst."

Mash complied and a moment later managed to connect with Chaldea. A hologram of Doctor Roman appeared in front of them - "Finally. We've established a connection. Watch out! Director Marie! You're alive!"

"Roman!" - Marie replied - "What are you doing at the command panel? And where's Lev? Give me Lev!"

"Forgive me, Director. I know I'm not up to the job, but I'm the highest-ranking person left. There are only 20 employees left besides me, and barely 20% of Chaldea's systems are operational."

"Less than 20… What about the Master Candidates?! What about Lev?!"

"Unfortunately, all the Masters are in critical condition, while Professor Lev was at the center of the explosion. He's most likely already dead."

Olga looked devastated for a moment, but quickly recovered - "Immediately freeze all the Masters in Coffins. Then we'll reanimate them."

"...of course! How could I forget about that." - Roman said and quickly ran to take care of it.

"Director Marie." - Mash said - "Isn't Cryopreservation illegal without the participant's consent?"

"Don't be ridiculous." - Olga said - "As long as they survive, I'll have some explanation. ...47 lives. I just can't handle such a burden. Oh. If only Lev were here."

A moment later, the doctor appeared again. "No. That concludes my report. I'm moving the remaining manpower to repair Rayshift and maintain the current status of Chaldeas and Sheba. Once external communications are restored, we'll call for supplies and get to work rebuilding Chaldea."

"Alright. For now, Ritsuka, Mash, and Caster will continue to try to solve this Singularity."

"Caster?" - Romani asked.

"It's me." - Heroic Spirit said - "I share a common goal with you, so I decided to help."

"Oh, by the way." - Ritsuka said, suddenly realizing something - "Aren't Heroic Spirit supposed to have some kind of wish for Gral to be summoned?"

"Yes." - Caster replied - "Mine was to fight powerful opponents."

"What happened here anyway?" - Mash asked.

Caster sighed and said - "Well, everything started like a regular Holy Grail War until all of a sudden all the people disappeared and these fires and monsters started appearing. Saber was the first one to decide to resume the war and defeated Lancer, Assassin, Berserker, Archer, and Rider. Then she infected their bodies with black mud and created her personal servants from them."

"So that's why this Singularity is happening here." - Olga said - "The Holy Grail War is still going on and you and Saber are the only ones left. If one of you wins, the war will end and this Singularity with it."

Ritsuka then interjected - "So we'll help you take out Saber. You win the war and that ends the Singularity."

"You get the idea quickly." - Caster said.

"So, all in all, you only helped us because you can't defeat Saber by yourself." - Olga said.

"Still, that's not a bad offer." - Caster said.

"Um... but how are we supposed to win?" - Mash asked - "From what you said, Saber still has 4 Servants, plus herself. And that's not counting those skeletons."

"Luckily, I took out Assasin and Rider earlier, while Berserker is mostly holding out in some villa in the woods and won't pose a threat as long as we don't provoke him. That leaves us with just Archer and Saber." - Caster explained.

"Do you happen to know the identities of either of them?" - Romani asked.

Caster quickly replied - "I don't know about Archer. But Saber is pretty simple. Anyone who's taken his Noble Phantasm will know who he is right away. After pulling the sword from the stone, he became a king, and the sword he currently wields is the most famous even in your time. Excalibur."

"King Arthur!" - the Chaldeans shouted together, immediately recognizing the enemy servant.

"Yes." - Caster calmly replied.

"It's over!" - Olga shouted - "Even if we somehow take out Archer, we have no chance against the king of knights!"

"Don't exaggerate." - Caster said, then pointed at Mash - "Archer attacked her right away, which means her shield must pose a threat to Saber. And since she's staying in the cave where Grail is, her attacks will be weakened so as not to destroy the place and damage Grail. We have a chance."

"If only we could call for reinforcements." - Ritsuka said.

"...THIS IS IT!" - Olga shouted, pointing at Ritsuka - "We have a summoning circle set up. Just summon another servant."

"What?" - Ritsuka asked, looking at her like she was stupid.

"Just do it." - The Director said.

"But that's impossible." - Ritsuka said - "With my magic circuits, I can bearly summon one at most. Heck. Most mages can only summon one. Two is nearly impossible."

"The young one is right." - Caster interjected - "That's the reason I only made a temporary contract."

"But Chaldea has magic generators that provide the masters with mana and allow them to summon multiple Servants per Master." - Mash explained.

"What about the catalyst?" - Ritsuka asked.

"Without it, it's just a random draw and we can count on getting something good." - Olga said.

"And, um, what's the incantation?" - Ritsuka asked embarrassed.

"Seriously." - Olga said. After that, she hit her on the head and said - "Repeat after me and don't mess this up. You understand."

Ritsuka nodded and Olga began dictating, with Ritsuka following her - "Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate. I hereby declare. Your body shall serve under me. My fate shall be your sword. Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail If you will submit to this will and this reason…Then answer! An oath shall be sworn here! I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell! From the Seventh Heaven, come forth from the ring of restraints!

Light flashed from the shield, followed by a man with brown skin, white hair, and a red cloak.

"Are you kidding me?!" - shouted Caster.

"What?" - asked Olga.

"This is Archer we will have to face." - said Caster.

"So here is my corrupted version." - said Archer standing up and saying - "I got basic information about this era and I know what is going on. Master, you can count on me."

"Thanks." - said Ritsuka, then turned to Olga - "Director, now it's your turn."

"What?" - asked the director quickly.

"The more Heroic Spirit on our side, the better." - said Ritsuka.

Before Olga could say anything, Caster spoke up - "This young lady has no possibility of becoming a master, even though she is a first-rate mage. Is this a curse?"

"So what!" - shouted Olga, quickly turning away from Caster - "Instead, maybe you could start telling us where the Grail is."

"Grail is in the caves beneath Ryuudou Temple, Mount Enzou." - Archer said.

"How do you know?" Mash asked.

"It's my hometown." - Archer replied.

"And your name?" - Ritsuka asked.

Archer looked at her for a moment and said - "I don't use it anymore, just call me Archer. But if you really want to know, it's Shiro Emiya."

"Maybe you could tell us about your weaknesses since we're going to fight your dark counterpart." - Caster said.

"As a Caster, you're no match for him anyway, Hound." - Emiya replied.

"What was that?" - Caster asked, clearly irritated. Both men stared at each other with fire in their eyes.

Mash walked up to Ritsuka and whispered - "Senapi, those two look like they're going to attack each other."

"I see." - Ritsuka said, wondering how she was going to solve this when she saw two armies of skeletons approaching them, probably drawn by the sudden light. This suddenly gave Ritsuka an interesting idea.

"Hey, you two." - Ritsuka said, catching Caster and Archer's attention - "If you want to prove who's better, here come two armies of skeletons. Whoever can take them all down first, either with hand-to-hand combat or a single weapon, wins."

Caster and Archer stared at her for a moment, while Olga and Marie thought - "You can't just throw those two into an obvious trap."

"Fine with me." - Caster said.

"Yeah." - Archer replied, then materialized black and white swords in his hands - "No magic, just the weapons we have in our hands."

"Sure." - Caster replied - "It'll take me maybe 3 minutes."

"That long?" - Archer asked jokingly before both of them simultaneously threw themselves at their groups of enemies.

"I can't believe that worked." - Mash and Olga said simultaneously.

"Honestly, me neither." - Ritsuka said as the two Heroic Spirits began to massacre the skeletons. Caster simply crushed their bones with blows from his staff while Archer used his swords to cut the skeletons.

"Oh well." - Olga said - "At least you summoned a powerful Servant to our side."

"Why do we even call them Servants?" - Ritsuka asked as the two crushed their opponents without any effort.

"Because that's what they are." - Olga replied, her voice almost tired. - "No matter what they were in life, they are nothing more than familiars now, albeit truly powerful ones, and they will eventually do as they are told, either cut off from their mana supply or forced to obey with a Command Spell."

"Director, the Heroic Spirit in me disagrees." - said Mash surprisingly quickly.

"Well, he must have been some kind of idealist in life." - said Olga.

"I don't know." - said Ritsuka - "Calling former Generals, War Heroes, and Kings as my Servants seems a bit... inappropriate. Heroic Spirit seems much more appropriate since they've made fame for themselves in human history. Although I can see why it might be wrong if we get some famous murderer."

"I see the young master has a lot of respect for us." - Caster suddenly said, standing next to her.

"Yes." - Archer added, standing on her other side - "This is quite refreshing."

"Are you done already?" - Mash asked, surprised.

"What are you talking about? It's only like 300 skeletons tops." - Caster replied. - "By the way, since you're so good and actually have enough mana for a few full contracts, you can change my temporary one to a full one."

"Sure." - Ritsuka said, looking at Caster and offering him her hand, which Caster accepted.

"Great." - said Caster - "Caster-class servant, Cu Chulainn, at your service, Master."

"Cu Chulainn, Irleands Child of Light." - said Mash in surprise.

"That's right." - said Cu, pleased that his name was known.

"Now, let's begin the plan of attack, and I'll tell you about my abilities." - said Archer.